wolfberries

Stir Fry Watercress with Shredded Chicken

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Stir Fry Watercress with Shredded Chicken

This is a recommendation from one of the home cooks from this cooking Facebook group that I am part of – a savoury version of watercress instead of the usual soup that I would always cook.

Watercress is my second favourite vegetable, second to bitter gourd of course. But I usually would cook it in a soup with fish balls. So this is my first time stir frying the watercress with shredded chicken and wolfberries. The final result is a nice confluence of flavours. The nuttiness of the watercress blends really well with the marinated chicken drum meat and the wolfberries adds a little sweetness to the dish.

Very easy to cook and tastes delicious. Even the wife loves it (and she hates watercress cooked in soup).

Recipe

Ingredients

1 bunch Watercress (the wet market usually sells fresh watercress although NTUC surprises me from time to time)
1 Chicken Drum (I usually get the chicken butcher to de-bone the chicken drum for me. The meat from the chicken drum is more tender and delicious when cooked)
Handful of Wolfberries (these are the dried reddish fruits that is usually available from any chinese medicine shop or NTUC)
4 tbsp Olive Oil (for frying)
1 tbsp Rice Wine (shao xing hua tiao jiu)
2 tsp Oyster Sauce
4 cloves Garlic (rough chop will do)
2 tbsp Kikkoman Soya Sauce
1/2 tsp White Pepper

Method

1. Soak the watercress in water to remove any dirt or debris. Clean out the discolored leaves. Chop the watercress into half after removing the end of the stems.

2. Chop the meat from the chicken drum into small slices. Marinate with white pepper and soya sauce for about 5 minutes.

3. Rough chop the garlic pieces. Then throw them into a heat wok with the oil. Stir fry the garlic pieces until they start to brown. Then add the marinated shredded chicken slices and wolfberries. Stir fry until the chicken starts to change colour.

4. Add the washed watercress into the wok and add a little water. Turn up the heat to high and then cover the lid to allow the vegetable to cook a little more. After about 3 minutes, they should be sufficiently whithered but still bright green (You generally don’t want to overcook the watercress because You want to retain the vitamins in the vegetable).

5. Add the oyster sauce and rice wine mix into the dish and continue to give it a stir fry. After that you may serve.

Bon Appetit!

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Watercress and wolfberries

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Shredded chicken drum slices

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Stir fry the garlic pieces

Huai Shan Black Chicken Soup

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Huai Shan Black Chicken Soup

The weather has been erratic lately with temperatures ranging into the mid 30s. At the rate of goes, it wont be long before we become feverish just by walking into the sun.

So I thought I would make this delicious chinese yam soup to counter the heatwave. Even if it doesn’t, it is still a good bowl of nutritious soup for the family. The best part about this soup is the fact that it doesn’t need too many other condiments to make it great.

A half a black chicken and a slender tube of huai shan is sufficient to make a great tasting soup. Add a tablespoon of wolfberries and the soup takes on a character of its own. The best part is, it is so easy to make, even if the ingredients are frozen (see picture).

Recipe

Ingredients

Half a Black Chicken (if you have more people in the family then you can cook the entire chicken)
A tube of Huai Shan (local chinese yam that is nutritious and fantastic for making soups)
1 tbsp of Wolfberries (add more if you like, it sweetens the soup)
Sea Salt (just enough to taste)

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water. While waiting for the water to boil, you can peel and wash the Huai Shan and cut them into 2 inch pieces. The yam tends to break into pieces if you boil for too long. I use a thermal cooker, so it works just right. The yam is intact and doesnt disintegrate.

2. Place the frozen black chicken into the pot. The water should be boiling by now. Add the Huai Shan into the pot and the tablespoon of Wolfberries and then pour the hot water into the pot. Add a little salt and then turn on a big fire and boil the soup for 15 minutes.

3. Once the soup is boiled. Place the pot into the thermal cooker and let it slow cook till you come back in the evening 12 hours later. The soup should be delicious and the chicken tender and huai shan firm and softened.

Bon Appetit!

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Huai Shan Black Chicken Soup

Pigtail Black Bean Soup

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Pigtail Black Bean Soup

The ubiquitous Pigtail Black Bean Soup. This soup is as Chinese as any soup could be. Every time I think of this soup, I am reminded of Brad Pitt. The names of the ingredients have elements of his name which seemed quite unfortunate really.

Don’t get me wrong, I love his portrayal of characters in his movies. Just that with his name as iconic as that, it seem to rhyme with the name of the soup.

Anyway, I heard this soup makes your black hair blacker and shiny. Not sure if it is true or not. I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as it is a good bowl of soup with delicious pigtails.

I bought 4 pigtails for this soup, so the flavour sure to be power. Plus I added a piece of dried cuttlefish to boost the flavour as well, so no excuse for it to not taste great. A very easy recipe especially with the thermal cooker.

Recipe

Ingredients

4 Pigtails (chopped)
1 bowl of Black Beans (pre-soaked overnight)
10 Wolfberries
5 large Red Dates
Half piece of Dried Cuttlefish
1 tsp Sea Salt

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water. Place the pigtail (frozen) into the pot. Dump in the pre-soaked black beans. Add the wolfberries, red dates and cuttlefish. Finish off with a tsp of salt.

2. Once water is boiled, add into the pot. Turn fire to high and boil for at least 20 minutes. Then place the pot into the thermal cooker to simmer for at least 12 hours. Re-boil it tonight. The soup sure nice one.

Bon Appetit!

Fish Soup

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Fish Soup

My wife and I went to Putien restaurant for lunch the other day and we ordered their Fish Soup, simply because we love soup. It was then that I noticed that they had a very interesting take on the soup. They used a Yellow Croaker for the broth, which resulted in a light and mildly flavoured fish soup. Personally I thought it was so-so only.

It was oily, gingery but delicious, just that the fish flavour could be a little stronger and the fish itself could be a little tastier. My lightning fast taste-buds quickly deciphered the soup and memorized the ingredients list and reverse engineered the entire cooking process in my mind. So I decided to cook my version of that fish soup, but using my favourite Garoupa fish head. Sure nice one.

I stir fried the ginger slices and a few cloves of garlic. Then fried the fish head without any seasoning or salt. Just in the same oil. In another pot, I was boiling a natural chicken stock. Kind of got tired of the pre-made chicken stocko as I felt it was too salty. Added a few essential ingredients like wolfberries, Chinese scallops and dried oysters. Done.

The final product was a perfect fish soup. The flesh of the Red Garoupa was flavourful and tender, better in taste than the flesh of the Yellow Croaker.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 carcass of Chicken Bones (for making stock)
1 whole Red Garoupa fish head (small)
10 thin slices of Ginger
5 cloves of Garlic
Handful of Wolfberries
5 number of Chinese Scallops
3 number of Dried Oysters
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Optional

10 slices of Yam (pre-packed yam will do)
4 pieces of Tau Pok (aka dried bean curd puffs)

Method

1. Boil the chicken stock using the chicken bones. Skim off the fat and dried blood as you boil. Soak the scallops and oysters in hot water for about 10 minutes.

2. Fry the ginger slices in the oil until it starts to brown a little. Then take it out. Now fry the garlic whole (not minced) and then take it out when it browns.

3. Next fry up the fish in the same oil. Add a little more oil if need be. Once the fish starts to brown a little add the pre-fried ingredients of ginger and garlic back into the wok. Add the soaked scallops, soaked oysters and also the wolfberries.

4. Now you can ladle the natural chicken stock into the wok and continue to cook the fish soup over a slow simmer. Do this for about 10-15 minutes. Seafood cooks rather quickly especially fish. It is kind of like having steam boat. Add salt to taste.

5. If you want to add tau pok and yam slices, you may do so, and it will be perfect. But if not, it will still taste great!

Bon Appetit!

Black Chicken Burdock Soup

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Black Chicken Burdock Soup

I have always wanted to make this soup and I can already imagine how delicious this soup would taste like even before cooking. The burdock soup with pork ribs was already delicious so with the addition of the black chicken, needless to say, this soup is gonna rock and roll.

The recipe is very much like the Burdock Soup 牛蒡汤 that I made recently, but except that now the recipe is complete. No more reliance on pre-packed herbal remedies. I have found the perfect confluence of ingredients for this soup.

Every ingredient brings to the table a slew of medicinal benefits. Otherwise it really makes for a great tasting soup. Try it!

Recipe

Ingredients

Half a Black Chicken (chopped into two parts)
80-90 cm length of Burdock Root 牛蒡
Bunch of Wolfberries
Bunch of Dried Red Dates
Salt

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water. Clean and peel off bark of Burdock Root. Then slice thinly (see picture below). You may soak it in hot water for 10 minutes if you like. Otherwise if you prefer a stronger earthy taste, then just drop it into the pot.

2. Place the half a chicken into the pot. As you can see my black chicken is frozen. My intention is always to simplify the process. So frozen black chicken is fine, no need to thaw. Just drop it into the pot. Add Wolfberries, add dried red dates and a pinch of salt. Then add the hot boiling water and boil at high heat (with lid on) for 20 minutes.

3. Place it in thermal cooker after that for 12 hours (which is when I get home) and the soup would be delicious. Black chicken tender. Soup rich with flavour.

Bon Appetit!

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Sliced Burdock Root 牛蒡

Burdock Soup 牛蒡汤

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Burdock Soup 牛蒡汤

Some say you are what you eat. Eat wood, you become wood. Burdock root is well as truly wood. The woody stem of the Greater Burdock plant seems to have some nutritional goodness other then looking like a tree branch.

It tastes like ginseng and apparently help with eczematic skin conditions. Otherwise it is a very delicious soup to drink. The wife loves it.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Metre length of Greater Burdock
Handful of Wolfberries
Handful of Dried Red Dates
250 grams of Pork Ribs
Salt

Method

1. Shave the bark off the burdock. Sliced it diagonally and soak in hot water for about ten minutes.

2. Boil a large kettle of water. Pour it into a pot. Turn on high heat. Add pork ribs, Wolfberries, red dates, and when the burdock is soaked, add it in as well.

3. Boil at high heat for 30 minutes with lid on. Serve. The ribs might not be drop off the bone tender but the soup is very good.

Bon Appetit!!

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Boiling the ingredients

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Greater Burdock Root

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Greater Burdock Root

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Greater Burdock Root

Drunken Prawns with Wolfberries and Red Dates

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Drunken Prawns with Wolfberries and Red Dates

Some people ask me why I post images of raw foods as opposed to delightfully photoshoped pictures. Well, I wanna show the freshness of the ingredients and to show that cooking is all about the beginning (as well as the journey) when you are about to cook because everyone will cook and their individual outcomes may all look different.

Don’t worry, I am sure you will make this dish look absolutely fabulous.

So drunken prawns with wolfberry and dates! Is this difficult to do? No way. It’s so easy I could have cooked it with my eyes closed. Try it.

Recipe

Ingredients

Freshest Prawns in the world
Handful of Wolfberries
4-5 Red Dates
Quarter cup of Hakka Rice Wine

Method

1. Shave off the whiskers of the prawns. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. But they look better clean shaven.

2. Arrange them in a steaming platter. Drop in the wolfberries and the red dates. Drizzle the rice wine all over the prawns. Place the plate in the steamer and steam for about 5 minutes and leave it there for another 1 minute with fire off but lid on. Then serve.

3. Steaming times differ. Depending on the size of the prawns, also if the water is boiling, the type of rice wine used, etc.. Blah blah blah.. Okay Nuff said, enjoy the process. I am sure yours taste the best.

Bon Appetit!

When Soups Get Complicated (Musing)

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When Soups Get Complicated (Musing)

There comes a time in the extended new dawn that there isn’t much to be afraid of anymore, where vampires and werewolves are just a figment of ingenious creative writing and gnomes and goblins become neighbours. There was no prodding or shoving of any kind this morning and I naturally got up and decided that there could be a greater purpose today than what it was originally intended for.

Time to make my soup, and perhaps a little more.

Today’s complicated soup of the day (just to prove that I am capable of complicated soups that still taste decent and nice), is none other than my easy as ABC soup, but with a little more pizzazz. So a complicated soup like this, would mean something like an ABCDEFG soup. I personally think that this soup has got great potential. It carries with it all the ingredients that came from near and far, and their masters’ blessings, hopes and understanding. These ingredients would typically hold its own weight, and be staple where they may come from. Carrots from Australia, Scallops from the sea of Japan, snowflakes from the top of the Himalayan ranges near the border. Yes, very exotic.

Ingredients that have no known origins, (actually I know where most of them came from) but where exactly, that is immaterial. What’s most important is that everyone is represented here in this huge pot, all ready to blend together and become one soup. So is it really a complicated soup then? Or is it really just a collation of many varied ingredients with distinct characteristics that would wow even the richest sheik or the wealthiest tycoon? Perhaps.

Recipe

Ingredients

200-250 grams of Pork Ribs *frozen or thawed – it doesn’t matter*

2 Carrots *cubed*

1 Sweet Corn *chopped*

1 Medium Yello Onion *sliced*

5 Dried Scallops (Japanese)

5 Dried Red Dates

1 handful of Wolfberries

 

Method:

1. Par boil the pork ribs and then discard the water. Boil a fresh pot of water, add all the ingredients and bring to an intense boil.

2. Once boiled for 15 minutes. The soup is ready for the thermal cooker.

3. Come back home and drink the soup.

Bon Appetit!